Voices of Change - Progressive Poetry and Cultural Resistance in India

This volume compiles critical essays that explore the evolution of progressive poetry in India from the 1920s onwards. It underscores the influence of writers in shaping both social and poetic landscapes, addressing themes such as folk music, colonial modernity, regional identities, and feminist poetics. Offering a comprehensive examination of the diverse voices and movements that have defined Indian progressive poetry, the book analyses key figures and movements, including Hemanga Biswas in Bengal, Subramania Bharati in Tamil Nadu, and the progressive cosmopolis in Assam. Additionally, it delves into the impact of film lyrics, the concept of autonomy in Telugu poetry, and the feminist poetics of progressive Punjabi poetry, explored alongside critical reflections on the cosmopolitan sensibility of poets such as Shiv Kumar Batalvi and Pash. The volume also includes a nuanced analysis of Gujarati poetry as featured in literary periodicals, the significant role of Tamil literary magazines, and contributions from Urdu, Hindi, Odia, Kannada, and Kashmiri literature, thereby highlighting the intricate tapestry of progressive thought across these diverse linguistic landscapes. By situating Indian progressive poetry within a global context, this volume provides valuable insights into how poetry has served as a medium for political and cultural resistance. With its interdisciplinary approach and thematic diversity, the book serves as an essential resource for scholars, activists, and students. It offers a nuanced understanding of the enduring role of poetry in shaping political ideologies and social thought in contemporary India.

List of contents

Introduction.- Bahirana and Ganasangeet: Towards an Aesthetics of Progressive Literature.- The Progressive Cosmopolis in Assamese Poetry (1890 1940): Colonial Modernity, Nationality, and Regional Identities.- Independence and its Many Egalitarian Conceptions: Film Lyrics and Poetic.- From Green to Red: A Synoptic Genealogy of the Progressive Movement in Odisha.- Progressive Poetry in Gujarati.- Literary Criticism and Poetry in the Progressive Tamil Literary Magazines, 1950-1980.- Revolutionary Romanticism to Film Lyrics: The Progressive Cosmopolis of Malayalam Poetry.- The Progressive Turn in Malayalam Poetry.- Political Phonocentrism and Lyric Freedom: Sweccha and Telugu Progressive Poetry.- The Making of Progressive Stream in Modern Hindi Poetry.- The Role of Progressive Poetic Movement in the Development of a Progressive Cosmopolis in Hindi Poetry.- Gender and Progressive Poetics: Hir, Amrita Pritam and Nasreen Anjum Bhatti.- The Progressive Side of Shiv Kumar Batalvi.- Progressive Writers Movement (1930-60): A Perspective on Punjabi Poetry.- The Protest Poetry in Marathi: The State Language in India.- Tracing the History of Progressive Sentiment in Kashmiri Literature: A Study of Select Twentieth Century Kashmiri Poets.- Absent Ideology: A Critical Study of Post-Independence Indian English Poetry.

About the author

Akshaya Kumar is Professor at Department of English and Cultural Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh. India. Having more than three decades of post-graduate teaching and research experience, his widespread literary and critical scholarship extends to the fields of Comparative Indian literature, Translation Studies, Critical Theory and Cultural Studies. He has extensively published in journals like South Asian Review, Indian Literature, Translation Today, and Biblio. Major books to his credit include, Poetry, Politics and Culture: Indian Texts and Contexts (Routledge: Delhi, New York and London, 2009). and A.K. Ramanujan: In Profile and Fragment (Rawat: Delhi and Jaipur, 2004). His co-edited volumes include Cultural Studies in India: Essays on History, Politics & Literature (Routledge: New Delhi, New York and London, 2016), Dialogues Across Languages: Theory & Practice of Translation in India (Panjab University Publication Bureau: Chandigarh, 2016). Translated text to his credit include, Gau-Dhuli Vela: Punjabi Translations of Sudeep Sen’s English Poems (Autumn Press, Patiala, 2021). He is at present writing A Critical History of Punjabi Literature to be published by Orient Blackswan.
Amandeep Kaur is Assistant Professor, Department of English, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. She earned his doctoral thesis (2018) from the Department of English and Cultural Studies, Panjab University Chandigarh, India mapping the growth of modern Indian poetry from its progressive phase during and after the colonial period, identifying its transformational propensities with a focus on its representation of resistance through the matrices of caste, class and gender in the post-progressive phase. She has also published two papers titled “Alienation of the Other: Examining Marginal Narratives in Select Punjabi Films” and “Kisan Protests in Punjab 1907–2021: A Literary Lineage of Resistance” in The Routledge Companion to Caste and Cinema in India and Agrarian Reform and Farmer Resistance in Punjab respectively in 2023. She is currently working on the dialectics of folk and ideology in Kirti Kaav.

Summary

This volume compiles critical essays that explore the evolution of progressive poetry in India from the 1920s onwards. It underscores the influence of writers in shaping both social and poetic landscapes, addressing themes such as folk music, colonial modernity, regional identities, and feminist poetics. Offering a comprehensive examination of the diverse voices and movements that have defined Indian progressive poetry, the book analyses key figures and movements, including Hemanga Biswas in Bengal, Subramania Bharati in Tamil Nādu, and the progressive cosmopolis in Assam. Additionally, it delves into the impact of film lyrics, the concept of autonomy in Telugu poetry, and the feminist poetics of progressive Punjabi poetry, explored alongside critical reflections on the cosmopolitan sensibility of poets such as Shiv Kumar Batalvi and Pash. The volume also includes a nuanced analysis of Gujarati poetry as featured in literary periodicals, the significant role of Tamil literary magazines, and contributions from Urdu, Hindi, Odia, Kannada, and Kashmiri literature, thereby highlighting the intricate tapestry of progressive thought across these diverse linguistic landscapes. By situating Indian progressive poetry within a global context, this volume provides valuable insights into how poetry has served as a medium for political and cultural resistance. With its interdisciplinary approach and thematic diversity, the book serves as an essential resource for scholars, activists, and students. It offers a nuanced understanding of the enduring role of poetry in shaping political ideologies and social thought in contemporary India.

Product details

• Assisted by: Kaur (Editor), Amandeep Kaur (Editor), Akshaya Kumar (Editor)
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 19.01.2026
• EAN: 9789819519941
• ISBN: 978-981-9519-94-1
• No. of pages: 500
• Illustrations: XX, 500 p. 2 illus.
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Literature, Poetry, Folk Music, Biographie, Literatur und Literaturwissenschaft, Poetry and Poetics, progressive poetry, Indian language literatures, literary histories, Poetry and Linguistics